Vogel Im Käfig
by claudi-und-brigidt
Summary: Modern AU, the story of Eren, Mikasa and Armin (adopted by Levi, Hanji and Mike) growing up with their friends in Maria, the poorest of the three districts. They attend a high school riddled with the prejudices born from a rigid social system. Later the fic becomes more centered on Jean and Marco. Maturity is a miserable institution. Reinbert, Eruri, Ymir/Christa, JeanMarco


Author's note: Hi you guys u vu this is our first fic and we're open to **_constructive criticism_**o vo we hope you enjoy this first fragment. We'll add loads more later after we tunnel our way out of 60 meters of homework.

* * *

Hanji slammed her glass down on the table, the wood creaking in protest. For the past hour she had occupied herself with getting absolutely shit-faced, and now, pointing an authoritative finger at all three of Levi, the same demand was made again:  
"God damn it Levi, we're getting kids!"  
This time there was no biting retort, they had all been exhausted on the previous presentations of Hanji's drunken preposition.

When Levi and Mike revealed to their new housemate that they made their money from organized crime, and had been since before they'd met her in college, she demanded immediately to get completely smashed, and now she was dribbling nonsense about children.

"Levi, you don't understand how serious I am. If this is what you two are going to do with yourselves, I want you to have something to be responsible for!" Tears of potentially alcoholic content started tumbling down Hanji's cheeks as she lunged out of her seat and seized Levi by his petite shoulders. "I…I don't want you guys…to feel like you can just throw your lives away and die like trash…! I don't want to watch you go to prison or get shot in a gang fight or something like that! I want to get kids so that you'll have a real obligation to stay safe…!"

"Hanji…" Levi's face remained perfectly normal, cold and cruel as the iceberg that took down the Titanic. "…that was the longest and most coherent string of sentences you have shat out of your mouth since you picked up that vodka."  
Hanji moaned and dropped her head with a bang on the table in defeat.

"But…I guess…we could get just ONE kid. An older one. I am _not _dealing with diapers."  
Levi was not quite certain at what moment within the .02 seconds following the utterance of those words it was that he ended up leaning at a rather dangerous angle, held up only by Hanji's fingers digging into his face and kneading small, painful circles into his cheeks. "Are you serious!? YES! Oh gosh I can't wait! We'll go tomorrow okay?" She did some strange nose bump thing with him, sat him up straight, and then ran off down the hallway to prepare for bed.

Obnoxious laughter erupted from where Mike had retreated to hide from Hanji's initial rage. He scrambled off the couch and prepared to unleash a severe mocking, something along the lines of "ohhhhh I thought you were never going to get kids, what's next, huh? Marriage?" Before he could deliver his painstakingly developed burns, he received a beautifully executed kick to the gut.

* * *

"What do you think you are doing?"  
"Ah! L-Levi! Listen, just hear me out—!"  
"No."  
"But—"  
"No."  
"But look at—"  
"I said one."  
"Listen to me! I really like Eren, but we just can't separate him from his friends!"

Hanji was crouched on a colorful foam puzzle-mat, with three children around the age of eight huddled in her arms. She was beaming up at Levi, her entire countenance just gushing sparkles and rainbows and sugar all over the goddamn floor. It was disgusting; as if this place wasn't disgusting as it was. The entire place was layered in dust and dirt and god knew when someone last took a good bottle of windex to this place. Not only was the place dirty, but something was rotting somewhere in the small building and no one seemed bothered enough to fix the smell. There were little kids of various ages, toddling around, fighting, whining, crying, and probably spreading all kinds of disease and bacteria. It had probably been ages since one of them last had a damn bath, let alone been looked at by a doctor.  
Levi glowered down at the child in the center of the ensemble Hanji had gathered, Eren. To his irritation, there was only one foot of difference between their heights, which was a strong contributor to the clarity of the child's perfect puppy-dog eyes. Mikasa was the Asian child to Eren's right, staring blankly up at Levi and keeping a firm hold on Eren's hand. Armin was the little blonde to Eren's left, his expression looking something like Bambi staring down a shotgun barrel.

"He'll just have to deal with it."  
"Leeeviiii come oooon! Look, Mikasa and Armin are the quietest, sweetest little kids! The caretakers said they keep their rooms cleanest, so it wouldn't even be extra trouble for you to take care of them too! And don't forget, I'm helping, and Mike, I bet the three of us together can handle three kids! One for each of us, right?" Hanji whined, pouting out her lips and looking like a kicked puppy.  
"I swear to god Hanji if I have to say no to you one more time we're leaving without any kids."  
Hanji finally submitted after a long sigh, throwing a sad look at the kids in her lap.

Eren let go of his friends' hands, taking a step closer to Levi and forcing a weak smile. He was trying to be brave, despite how unnerving he found Levi's black colored stare. He couldn't quite place what made it so terrifying.  
"P-please…sir…! If you won't take all of us…at least take Armin or Mikasa! I swear I'm a huge brat! You won't want me!" Levi rolled his eyes and dropped down on his knees, refraining from shuddering at the thought of stains from dirt tracked in by tiny feet, and carefully traced a bruise on Eren's cheek. Suppressing a cringe at the dirt his fingers gathered from the boy's cheek, he met the kid's eyes. "I can see that. I bet you start all kinds of trouble, hm? You're a really selfish kid, you know. Does it look like your friends want to leave you? Maybe we should adopt you all so that you won't be such a selfish brat."  
While Eren's young mind labored to understand whether he should be elated or hurt, Levi looked up at Hanji and continued, "Is that what you wanted to hear? We'll get the noisy one because you like him, but no matter how much you try to bribe or blackmail me there is no way I'm getting you three children." With that he got up and left to go deal with the paperwork, not hiding his look of disgust at the mess surrounding him. God forbid the front desk be disorganized, he might just lose his fucking mind.

Eren glared after him.  
He didn't understand much, he was only eight, but he did understand that he might never see his friends again because of this really short man. Eren's gaze shifted to Hanji, who was now sitting with Armin and Mikasa in her lap, comforting them by petting their heads and patting their backs, before they could realize the gravity of what was happening. "Don't worry" she said, "I'll hide you two in my purse, Levi won't even notice. He's not really such a big meanie most of the time, it's just that he's actually shrinking every day and it makes him grumpy…" She went on like this, jumping from subject to subject with a big bright smile, and eventually producing little candies and mints from her purse to keep the smiles present on the children's faces.

Eren felt the need to cry.  
His hands, still round and blunt with baby fat, balled into tight little fists.  
He didn't want to leave this place.  
Who would take care of Armin?  
Who would talk for Mikasa?  
His friends deserved someone like Hanji more than he did.  
They couldn't take him away. Not when his friends needed him.  
He wouldn't let them.  
That other guy would have to drag him out fighting.  
He wouldn't stop fighting, not for a single second. Not until he could stay with his friends.

This was the resolve that Eren clung to as he looked back at Levi, who was now returning from the front room with the signed paperwork.  
This was the resolve that disappeared the moment Eren met those cold black eyes.  
He knew then exactly what made Levi so scary.  
There is a special kind of darkness that every child fears. When someone switches the lights off and holds the door shut, and suddenly the hands that reach out don't exist. Not a thing can be heard, not breath or heartbeats, not the cruel laughter outside. Nothing can be felt, except for the frost that digs tiny claws into bone, its sole purpose to eat its way out and settle on the surface, making everything heavy.  
That is the darkness that Levi's eyes and all the rest of him are made of, and Eren found himself wanting to stay behind for utterly different reasons.

"Let's go Hanji, before we contract every virus on the planet." Levi stood impatiently, not even actually paying attention to Eren, who was currently petrified. Hanji's face turned sober as she gently removed the children from her lap and stood up. Realization was slowly seeping into their features, as the two kids looked from Hanji's sad smile to Eren's wide eyes. They moved in to exchange hugs, seemingly unsure how to process the situation.

"Aw Levi, look at what you've done…" Hanji gave the three children one last tearful glance before pouncing on Levi and shaking him around by his expensive, really rather feminine jacket. "What kind of human being are you? How can you do this to these poor kids? Look at them! They'll never be the same again! I hope you're happy with yourself you dirty wretched—"  
"Well fine," Levi cut in; "if you really feel that strongly about it I'll put them back."  
Hanji let go of him and took to patting his collar back into place. "What was that…?"  
"I got them all. Take me out of this place before I change my mind. And _don't touch me_."

The shriek that Hanji let out, directly next to Levi's ear as she (ignoring his last statement entirely) nearly tackled him to the ground, attracted the attention of every single (filthy) person in the room, several dogs, probably some dolphins, and all of fucking Starfleet. As a result Levi looked somewhat similar to a cat that had unexpectedly become acquainted with the fact that balloons do indeed pop.  
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou oh gosh I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to dissect you in your sleep to find the heart in your tiny little body! Haha!"  
"Whatever, can we—what?"  
"Nothing!~"

Levi let out a deep sigh and gave Hanji a soul scorching glare that demanded their immediate departure, unless she wanted to find herself suddenly lacking one short guy and her car keys. Hanji, of course, completely ignored Levi and swept the nearest child into her arms. Armin, the unfortunate victim, let out a surprised squeak as he was squished against Hanji.  
Levi rolled his eyes, pried Hanji off the little blonde and hissed a warning about hurrying up before her bullshit got the kids repossessed, as the suspicious glances from all the caretakers in the room suggested. Hanji finally calmed down enough to round up the three children and usher them to the door, though she couldn't resist hoisting little Armin onto her hip before Levi could stop her. Mikasa clung to Eren's arm, expression blank but still slightly shaken from her near separation from Eren. Eren was simply in awe that Levi had actually adopted them all.  
He shot a look to the other man, the man who was trying hard not to touch anything in the dirty little orphanage. He couldn't see what type of future he would have with this man.

Levi met Eren's eyes as the boy stared at him and raised one slim black eyebrow. Eren looked away quickly at being caught and hurried to catch up to the others and leave the orphanage.


End file.
